Tareq Abu Khudair on being assaulted by Israeli police
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00:00Tareq, you know, reading the reports and everything about you traveling to Jerusalem, you haven't
00:16been there in a really long time, is that correct?
00:19Yeah.
00:20What age were you when you first went to Jerusalem?
00:21I was four years old.
00:24So what was your expectations going there?
00:27What was going through your mind?
00:28I wanted to go out, I wanted to go to the Dome of the Rock and everything.
00:33How did you feel walking in the streets, seeing old family members?
00:37I was so happy and I couldn't believe it.
00:42I want to talk a little bit about your cousin Mohamed.
00:45Were you guys close or did you form a relationship with him while you were there?
00:50Yeah.
00:51Well, me and Mohamed, we were best friends.
00:53I mean, we were friends from the first day I got there.
00:59So when you found out what happened to him, how did you feel?
01:02What was going through your mind?
01:05I felt so sad because he doesn't deserve to die that way.
01:10Okay, let's talk about the day that the Israeli police grabbed you.
01:17What were you doing and how did they grab you?
01:19I was standing there watching from the alley and then I heard screaming from the other
01:26side of the alley and behind those people that were screaming, I saw soldiers.
01:33So everybody panicked and ran, so I ran too and jumped in and I fell.
01:41You fell down?
01:42Yeah.
01:44Yeah, I fell.
01:46Then I got up and I ran a little farther and then they grabbed me.
01:51What happened when they grabbed you?
01:52Did you think that your life was under threat?
01:54Yeah.
01:55I didn't know what to do because I was blindfolded when I woke up.
02:03What was going through your mind, obviously, you know, being beaten.
02:07Were you aware of what was happening or did you pass out?
02:13Yeah, I was aware of what was going on.
02:16I was screaming at them every time they'd hit me.
02:20So now that you're back in the States and you're, you know, alhamdulillah, you're not
02:24in that situation now where what's happening in Gaza and what's happening in the West Bank.
02:30So what is your message to the Palestinian kids your age, just normal kids who can't
02:36leave their country?
02:38I'm telling them to stay strong, never back down, don't be scared of, don't be scared
02:44of them.
02:45Do you think that what happened to you changed your life?
02:49Definitely, it did change my life.
02:53How so?
02:54It made me wide awake, like, it made me think about Palestine more, it made me want to know
03:02more.
03:04Now that you're back and you're going to try to resume, I guess, your normal life and go
03:09to school, I'd like to know a little bit about what you're interested in, you know, what's
03:13your favorite subject in school?
03:15Math.
03:17And what do you want to be when you grow up?
03:19I want to be an engineer.
03:21Where were you when you thought it was taken and what did you know at the time?
03:34I was mourning the loss of Mohamed at his mom's house, so a relative had come up to
03:47me and told me that Tariq was in jail, and some other cousins of his as well, so I called
04:02my husband to, you know, confirm that, and he said, yes, I'm in, I'm at the jail right
04:10now.
04:12Okay, so what were you thinking?
04:15Were you assuming the worst, given what happened to his cousin and as a mother?
04:23I knew that when they take the Palestinians, that they do beat them, okay, I knew that,
04:31I heard, you know, that before, and so I asked relatives around, do you think he's going
04:37to be okay?
04:38And, you know, they said, yeah, they're going to slap him around a little bit.
04:44So I thought, okay, they might slap him around a little bit, but you know, I'm sitting there
04:51like afraid, I have all these thoughts going through my head, they might kill him, you
04:58know, because they're trained to actually go and kill the Palestinians, you know, they
05:08know that, who's going to know, who's going to find out it's just another Palestinian
05:13on the side, you know, and nobody's going to ask about him.
05:16Did you, obviously, he's American, did you think, oh, maybe he's American, they'll show
05:22some restraint or have some caution when dealing with him?
05:25Yeah, everybody was telling me, you know, don't worry, they're going to find out he's
05:29American and let him go.
05:31So that brought some sort of relief to me.
05:37But at the same time, I didn't know what to expect from these people.
05:43And obviously, you got to see him later, I guess it was in court or when he was released
05:49and you saw his injuries.
05:50I mean, as a mother seeing your son like that, what was, how are you feeling and what was
05:56going through your mind?
05:57No, the first time I saw him was that night in the hospital.
06:05It was kind of like the next morning because they waited, the incident happened at 730.
06:10And they waited all the way until 115 till they actually were convinced from my husband
06:16that he needed medical attention.
06:20My husband, one of the guards secretly told my husband, your son needs medical attention
06:29right away.
06:30Because he was bleeding, he was still unconscious, he was, I think he was going in and out of
06:35consciousness.
06:36And they took him to jail.
06:40And he was blindfolded.
06:41And he was, you know, bleeding everywhere.
06:45So finally they handcuffed, he was handcuffed to the bed.
06:50He was handcuffed to the bed while he was unconscious?
06:54He was handcuffed to the hospital bed.
06:57So when I got to the hospital, I didn't know what to expect.
06:59I went to the hospital because my husband told me he's just getting a checkup.
07:05So when I got there, I saw the Israeli police guard at his door.
07:11And I'm thinking to myself, why would they have a guard at someone's door that had just
07:18been beat unconscious?
07:20Right.
07:21Anyway, we, yeah, and so my husband finally convinced him to let me in.
07:27He didn't want to let me in.
07:30And he told me, you can't touch him, you can't get near him, and you can't talk to him.
07:36So you came into the room and what did you do?
07:39Yeah.
07:41I was outside of the room and I looked over and I saw his distorted face.
07:46It wasn't him.
07:49He did not look like himself and he was sleeping.
07:52You know, I was, I was, I was asking myself, is he alive?
08:01What was he charged with again by the Israeli police?
08:03There were no charges.
08:04No charges.
08:05There were no charges.
08:06No charges at all.
08:08But they put him on house arrest for nine days.
08:12Yes.
08:13They put him on house arrest for nine days and had to pay a bail amount.
08:19I asked Audit the same question.
08:21Do you feel that what happened to your son has, you know, changed your life?
08:25And how so?
08:26Yes, it has tremendously actually.
08:33I'm just closer to my country now.
08:36I'm just closer to Palestine.
08:38Palestine's more close to my heart than ever.
08:42Just because I experienced what these Palestinians experience every single day of their lives.
08:48You know, and my son experienced what they go through.
08:51That was just a little piece of what, you know, these Palestinians get every day.
08:58Well, now that you are back in, you know, the American media's focusing attention on
09:02what happened there, what has been your general outlook on how the media in America has covered
09:10the incident and also how the American government has handled the incident?
09:17Because I've heard, you know, even the Florida representative in Congress had really nothing
09:23to say.
09:24And this is an American citizen at the end of the day.
09:27What was your experience and what were you expecting?
09:31I'm happy with how the media is covering this.
09:35Even though they cut out a lot of the important facts, they did get my son's story out.
09:45And a lot of people are finding out the truth that didn't know before.
09:51They just think this is a war and, you know, and it's been going on for years and that's
09:57not true.
09:59You know, what we're going through is an occupation and it's from one side, it's one sided.
10:08These Palestinians don't have rights.